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The Documentary: Moondog: Sound of New York

Moondog Louis Thomas Hardin

06/11/2019 GMT

Moondog: Sound of New York

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Moondog: Sound of New York

Singer Huey Morgan celebrates the life and work of blind musician Moondog.

Twenty years after his death, New Yorker Huey Morgan examines the life, work and enduring appeal of the musician known as Moondog who lived and worked on the city's streets in the 1950s and '60s.

Born Louis Thomas Hardin in Kansas in May 1916, he played musical instruments from an early age and lost his sight in an accident when he was 16. He went on to teach himself music and composition by ear, as well as music theory through books in braille.

In 1943, he moved to New York where he soon became acquainted with Leonard Bernstein and Arturo Toscanini as well as jazz performers and composers like Charlie Parker and Benny Goodman. In the late 1940s, he lived as a street musician, composer and poet on the streets and became known as The Viking of Sixth Avenue because of his beard, long hair and attire which included a cloak and a Viking-style horned helmet.

Moondog's music would take inspiration from street sounds like the subway and foghorns. His compositions were a combination of classical, traditional jazz and American vernacular. He became a pioneer with a unique attitude to composition and melody. He would also invent instruments. 

Huey Morgan returns to his home city to learn more about Moondog. He’s joined by biographer Robert Scotto at his regular pitch on 6th Avenue and by poet and writer Magie Dominic who remembers meeting him in the 1960s. The programme includes rare recordings of Moondog speaking in the early 1980s.

(Photo: Moondog (Louis Thomas Hardin,1916 - 1999) performs at the Poetry Olympics at the Royal Albert Hall in London, 1980s. Credit: Michael Putland/Getty Images)

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